Welcome! This is written primarily for people with Type 2 Diabetes. Some information covers all types of diabetes. Always keep a positive attitude is my motto.
I am a person with diabetes type 2 and write about my experiences and research. Please discuss medical problems with your doctor. Please do not click on the advertisers that have attached to certain words in this section. They are not authorized and are robbing me by doing so.

April 15, 2013

Personalized Risk Assessment Aids Decisions

This is a generalized study about risk
assessment. Diabetes is not among those discussed and this is a
disappointment. With the fact that the American Association of
Diabetes Educators (AADE) does not emphasize risk assessment for
diabetes, and even the American Diabetes Association (ADA) does not
have firm guidelines, this is a shame on these groups. There are
many writers, bloggers, and other medical sources that write about
risk assessment, but our professional organizations seem not to care.
Stopping the diabetes epidemic should be a higher priority.

The ADA does have a program in place
that people may use, but this is different from having a public
policy or doctor recommended assessment procedure. In addition, the
link here will take you to the diabetes risk test. This is not an
assessment test, but a one-size-fits-all risk test. I admit I have
seen poorly constructed risk tests, but this one does not properly
evaluate your diabetes risk. The first panel only allows four age
groups and stops at 69. Apparently, people over 69 are not at risk
for developing diabetes. They may also figure that people over the
age of 69 are not worth the effort of assessment. I have to call
this age discrimination and add to this care discrimination. It is
no wonder that the AADE does not have practice policies in place for
the elderly.

Yes, the ADA does have several “stop
diabetes” programs, but this is merely lip service. The ADA is not
aggressively promoting diabetes risk assessment for doctors and does
little to educate doctors. You say that they issue new guidelines
every year. Yes, but how many doctors even read them, much less
practice following them. If they really understood the ADA
guidelines, then why do we encounter so much of what the next
paragraph says?

Many of the sites having diabetes risk assessment tools available do a much more thorough task of
assessment, but then bail on giving specific instructions about
conferring with your doctor that is knowledgeable about diabetes.
They do say to talk to your doctor. If your doctor is not current
with the knowledge about diabetes, you may end up with a warning that
“your blood sugar is above normal, watch what you eat” or
something similar with no diagnosis of diabetes.

Always ask for your lab results so that
you may see what the results of the tests state. If your fasting
blood glucose or plasma blood glucose levels are above 125 mg/dl,
then you may need to ask for the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT).
If your A1c level is above 6.4 this also applies. If the doctor
balks, then I urge you to consider a change of doctors. The higher
the results are above 125 mg/dl, the more urgent the need for a
change of doctors. If your fasting or plasma blood glucose results
are above 180 mg/dl, and your A1c is above 7.9%, then it is urgent
that you find a doctor that will do the necessary testing for
analysis. You need to know to be able to take actions to stop or
prevent the development of any complications.

If the results are between 100 and 125
mg/dl, then you are at risk to develop diabetes. This is the range
considered “prediabetes” and you should then learn what
preventative measures you may take to prevent the onset of full
diabetes. The A1c range is 5.7% to 6.4%. Most doctors seem to
ignore this range, but there are preventive measures that are
possible to take to prevent the onset of full diabetes.

This source is one of many risk assessments you may do yourself, but if you do not have diabetes now,
take this seriously. If you are at risk, do your health a favor and
schedule a doctor appointment with the specific instructions that you
want to tested for diabetes.

No comments:

Search

Subscribe To

About Me

I am enjoying life, despite diabetes type 2. I am retired and enjoying the time I have for writing and photography. I was diagnosed with type 2 on Oct 2003, on oral meds for 4 months and they were doing nothing to really improve my daily readings. By cutting my carbohydrates I received the most improvement, but still not enough. Then I requested insulin, even though I did not like the thought of needles. That brought about the biggest change and A1c's in the lower 6's and upper 5's. Now I am working at maintaining them under 6.0 and hopefully nearer 5.5.